


Christmas Wish

by staunchly_anonymous



Category: Free!
Genre: Christmas, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-24
Updated: 2014-12-24
Packaged: 2018-03-03 03:35:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2836556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/staunchly_anonymous/pseuds/staunchly_anonymous
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>prompt: Haru and Rin move in together for the first time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Christmas Wish

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gengar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gengar/gifts).



He hadn’t turned the heat on. They were moving in the  day before Christmas, and stupid Haru hadn’t  bothered to turn the  fucking heat on! As he carried the fifth box up the stairs, wearing a sweater and his winter coat, Rin strung as many curse words as he could think of along in front of Haru’s name.

 

“You know, it’s  cold in December,” he said, setting the box inside the front door of their new apartment. “Cold usually means you run a  heater .”

“It’s not that cold, Rin,” said Haru.

“It’s  freezing !” Rubbing his tingling hands together, Rin blew on them in an attempt to warm them up. They felt like  ice . Stepping around Haru, he peered into their bedroom, where the mattress and box springs sat on the floor. The wooden bedframe leaned against the wall. “I guess I should start putting the bed together --”

“We don’t have everything inside yet.” Haru was already opening the door again.

 

Rin watched him step outside before throwing his head back and letting out a heaving, exasperated sigh. He should have  known that Haru would approach moving with his normal laissez faire attitude. He should’ve called to have the electric hooked up himself.

“We can just sleep on the mattress with it like that for one night,” Haru said, coming back in with a box labeled ‘ Christmas ’. He set it on the counter and flipped his hair out of his face. “One night without the bed frame won’t kill us, Rin.”

 

“Right.” Rin turned around and leaned on the door frame. “So is that it? Is that everything?” Their new apartment was covered in boxes.

Haru looked around. “That’s it, yeah.” 

Rin sighed again. “I guess now we have to unpack.”

“Or we could unpack tomorrow. It’s not li--”

“Tomorrow’s Christmas,” Rin said. “We’re not unpacking on  Christmas .” 

“But you’re tired,” Haru said.

 

Nothing had gone according to plan. Rin’s original plan involved moving in well before Christmas, because he’d also had this grand idea of decorating their new apartment together. He’d wanted to put up a little Christmas tree and have presents under it, including the small box that was currently burning a hole in his coat pocket. That was, of course, until they learned that they couldn’t even get their keys until December 23rd.

 

Now it was Christmas Eve and they had barely gotten everything into the apartment. Rin’s little Christmas tree was packed away in its slim box, just like his ornaments and jingle bell wreath. There was no  way he’d get anything up by Christmas. All his planning, all those matching ornaments and the shimmery, glittering tinsel were completely wasted. Rin hadn’t even managed to wrap Haru’s gift, and Haru was right, anyway -- he  was tired.

 

It was intensely disappointing in a vague, nagging sort of way. Now his toes were cold and his fingers were cold and his  nose was cold and Rin just wanted to sort of… lie down, but he couldn’t because nothing -- not even his toothbrush -- was unpacked. This was a  disaster . 

 

Haru didn’t even seem to notice. He took the box marked for the bathroom out of the hallway and began to put things away in cabinets, setting shampoo in the shower and toothbrushes by the sink. True to form, he was unflustered by the fact that their holiday was ruined. Rin sighed. If his boyfriend didn’t care, why should he?

 

There would be other Christmases. It wasn’t as if he and Haru would never have another. His tendency towards perfectionism hadn’t always served him well in the past and this was another prime example. What was that thing his mother always said about the best laid plans?

 

Digging into a box for sheets, Rin quickly dressed the bare mattress and threw blankets down on top of it. At this rate, they’d both be too tired for anything besides sleeping, anyway, and Haru was right: one night on the mattress and box springs without the frame wouldn’t kill them. Judging by the weight in his feet, Rin would probably sleep too deeply to notice the difference.

 

The sound of water running in the bathroom pulled another sigh from Rin. Of course Haru would take a bath. They had everything inside and a plain mattress to sleep on... What else could they need? Rubbing his temples with his fingers, Rin shut his eyes. 

 

Stripping his coat off, Rin sat on the mattress and tried to decide what to sleep in. Their apartment was frigid, no matter what Haru said. In the end, he curled up under the blankets with his jeans, sweater, and wool socks on. By the time Haru stepped out of the bathroom, Rin was sound asleep, one arm draped across the empty space next to him. He didn’t even twitch when Haru slid into bed, curling up underneath the blankets.

 

When Rin woke at least nine hours later, it was only because the sun was beaming directly on his face. Scrunching his nose, he rolled over. He was alone, the bedroom still a jumble of boxes. He sat up slowly and rubbed at his eyes. “Haru?”

 

It smelled like coffee. Rolling out of bed, Rin looked for his socks -- he must have kicked them off in his sleep. Finding them balled up in the blankets, he pulled them on before leaving the bed. Rubbing his arms, he shivered. He’d have to call about the electric first thing. 

 

Well, first thing after some coffee. As he stepped out into the hallway, a warm glow from the living room caught his attention. “Haru?”

 

His tiny Christmas tree stood by the window on a table, bright glass ornaments catching the morning sunlight. Rin stared for a minute, amazed. When had --

“Good morning,” said Haru, handing him a cup of coffee. “Merry Christmas.”

Rin looked down at the mug for a moment. “When did you --”

“You were really tired,” he said. “I had some spare time.”

“But how are the lights on?” Rin asked, feeling stupid. The tree glittered with tiny lights.

“I called this morning. Electric’s working now.” Haru turned towards the kitchen. “Are you hungry?”

“Wait,” said Rin.

Haru turned back around. “Hm?”

 

“I’m not ungrateful,” Rin said. “But --”

“You wanted our first Christmas to be perfect, didn’t you?” Haru looked at the small tree. “I know that everything didn’t work out the way you wanted. But I thought you could at least enjoy your little tree...”

“It’s fine,” Rin said, “really. We’ve had a lot going on, and -- the tree is beautiful. I love it.”

“I wanted our first Christmas to be perfect, too.”

 

Rin stared at Haru for a moment. He’d never considered the idea of Haru caring about Christmas. Every time he mentioned it, the response was lukewarm at best. If he’d just  known that Haru cared, he could’ve stayed up and done all this himself.

Rin sighed. “Hang on.”

 

Padding back down the hallway to the bedroom, he dug into his coat pockets for the tiny box. It was a simple bracelet, nothing extravagant. Rin saw it in the store and thought it seemed like the kind of thing Haru would wear, and jewelry was a traditionally romantic gift. As he re-entered the living room, Haru looked up from the sofa.

“Merry Christmas,” Rin said, handing the small box to his boyfriend. “I was gonna wrap it, but then we started moving everything, and…”

 

Haru opened the box. As he slid the bracelet on, Rin’s heart skipped a beat as Haru gave him a rare, beautiful smile. “It has a dolphin on it.”

“Well, yeah.” Rin rubbed the back of his neck. “It just seemed like you.”

Threading gentle fingers through Rin’s hair, Haru leaned in to kiss him. He tasted like coffee and the faint mint of the morning’s toothpaste, clean and sweet. “You didn’t have to get me anything,” he murmured, lips still close.

“What,” Rin said, sliding his hands around Haru’s waist, “is this the part where you say something cheesy like ‘all I want for Christmas is you’?”

 

“You love that song.” Haru pressed a gentle kiss to Rin’s jaw.

“I do,” Rin admitted. “I can’t help it, Mariah Carey speaks to me. It’s --”

Haru cut him off. “Anyway, it’s true.”

“What is?” Rin leaned his forehead against Haru’s. 

“That all I want for Christmas is you.”

 

In the end, they didn’t need to turn the heat on in their new apartment.

**Author's Note:**

> Apology for terrible title.


End file.
